Tobias scoops WBO Best African Promoter award… Uutoni moves closer to world title

Namibia’s internationally acclaimed boxing promoter, Nestor ‘Sunshine’ Tobias, has again scooped the coveted World Boxing Organisation (WBO) Best African Promoter of the Year award.

Presenting the accolade to Tobias on Tuesday night during the 29th WBO Convention underway in Puerto Rico, WBO president Francisco Varcarcel hailed the Namibian promoter for his unwavering dedication to the growth of African boxing and Namibian boxing in particular.

“We have no doubt that the Nestor Sunshine Boxing and Fitness Academy deserves this award. This award is in honour of their excellence,” said Varcarcel.

In summary, the WBO recognised and awarded Tobias and his academy for setting up outstanding professional bouts, the quality of the fights, the frequency of such fights and the entertainment value they bring to African boxing in general.

Tobias, who also won the same accolade in 2010 and 2011, expressed his gratitude upon receiving the honour before thanking the WBO for creating a conducive environment for promoters to go about their business. He also gave a huge thank you to the academy’s main sponsor, MTC, for taking them to a whole new level.

“We are honoured to be recognized by the WBO, and are therefore accepting this award not on behalf of ourselves but on behalf of all our loyal boxing fans, our main sponsor MTC and our dedicated boxers, who are committed to the sport of boxing in Namibia and the world,” said Tobias, who is widely hailed as the face of Namibian boxing.

Reacting to the good news, MTC’s chief human capital and corporate affairs officer, Tim Ekandjo, said: “It is indeed a remarkable and world-class achievement by the MTC Sunshine Academy. It is a reflection of world-class fans, a world-class sponsor and world-class boxers whom we are extremely proud of.”

More good news from the convention was that Tobias confirmed that Japhet Uutoni, who is the current WBO junior flyweight international champion, will soon get a shot at the world title after the WBO mandated and approved that Uutoni fights any top rated boxer in the world, and that his fight should serve as final eliminator for the world title.

The world title is currently vacant and it was resolved that Moises Fuentes (Mexico) will fight Kosei Tanaka (Japan) for the vacant world title. The winner of that fight will then face either Uutoni or a yet to be named opponent that will fight Uutoni in the final world title eliminator.